7 minute read
Ram Krishna Mission temple, Porbandar
from Snehal Shah
ram krIShna mISSIon temple
Porbandar, 2001
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A great earthquake struck Gujarat in 2001 and caused heavy destruction across a vast area, including remote villages. education in these villages came to a standstill, with buildings ruined or damaged.
the ram Krishna Mission approached Snehal Shah Architects to rebuild schools. Around 160 basic school structures were built in record time, with the practice overseeing the work. the client was pleased and also commissioned the architects to build a temple in Bharwada. A modern architectural vocabulary was sought, rather than replicate the conventional temple design with gods and goddesses ranged around the walls.
the temple is located in the main square, in the midst of the township. the plan is a square that becomes an octagon as it rises towards the pyramidal roof. An upside down quinch creates the stepped form of the pyramid.
An open prayer/audience hall allows breezes in from all directions. Wooden doors on the axis of the temple create an enclosure to the shrine.
the expected temple symbols are present. the flagpost is located on top of the pyramidal roof. the front prayer hall is square, creating a joint between the main shrine and prayer hall and forming a circumambulation (Pradakhshina path). two squares are generally put together in the place where the idol is located: the two squares accord with stipulations in the religious architectural treatises. the squinches are placed in the four corners, acting as four guardians to ward off evil spirits.
the front pyramidal roof over the prayer hall is glass to maximise natural light; and the sun is expressed implicitly as the supreme power.
COURSE 19 Course 19
N 0 100 500 SIZES OF STONE:
22" X
1000 15" X 11
COURSE 20 Course 20
N 0 100 500 SIZES OF STONE:
1000 15" X 11
COURSE 21 Course 21
N 100 0 500 SIZES OF STONE:
1000
0 0.5 1m
sizes of stone 22” x 7 1/2 “ x 6” 15” x 11 1/4” x 6”
Course 22 COURSE 22
A temple is a design challenge. It demands sensitivities beyond mundane questions of location, climate, materials, aesthetics and functionality.
The temple is for the Ram Krishna Mission. After an earthquake in Gujarat devastated buildings in cities and villages throughout the state in 2001, the Mission rebuilt schools and hospitals in several villages. Our entire office spent two days in the region, seeing the extent of the devastation for ourselves.
Ram Krishna Mission asked us to design a small temple in Bharwada. This little village is eight kilometres from Porbandar, birthplace of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
The temple is rectangular in plan, 20 x 10 m, its longer side oriented on an east-west axis. The plan divides into two squares, each 10 x 10 m, with segregated functions: the prayer hall and the main sanctum.
One enters the prayer hall via a small staircase on the western facade. A grid of circular columns supports a reinforced concrete slab above, with a central pyramid skylight. The space is semi-open, delineated by (600 mm) low walls.
The main sanctum is small, only 5 x 5 m, with a circumambulatory path. Such a space surrounds the main sanctum in most Hindu temples, used by devotees to circle the sacred space of the deity. Ram Krishna Mission does not believe in idol worship. Instead there are photographs of spiritual leaders placed in the sanctum.
The sanctum has a shikhara (pyramid) roof supported on stone walls. This roof gives the temple its special character. The stones are set at 45 degrees to develop a pattern, forming squinches at every corner. The shikhara is simple and subtle: when examined, the complexity of its angled detailing seems to dominate the simplicity.
As it rises, the main sanctum goes from being square in plan to an octagon, and the squinch form tilts upside down to develop the step-like pyramid. The temple does not register immediately as a building, as only the main sanctum is visible, its 6 m stone shikhara signalling a presence.
The temple is built from stone quarried in the nearby town. The stone both speaks of the place and is far more durable than other materials.
We expressed the sun as the supreme power. After completion of the temple, a Swami asked where I had placed the gods and goddesses. My answer was that shadows created by sunlight and reflections on the stone created different gods and goddesses. The client smiled.
Most of the buildings that surround the temple are simple residences. We also designed two schools here, and thus a whole community is raised. It is rather special to see an architectural vocabulary in a remote village.
amrUt mody SChool of management
with SL Shah, civil engineer
Ahmedabad, 2005
the corner site of the management institute campus has busy main roads on two frontages. Across the lesser crowded road is the indian institute of Management – Ahmedabad (iiM-A) designed in 1962, by the great modern master, Louis Kahn.
the new college is built well back from the main roads. in front of the building, a wide lawn spreads across the site to the boundaries, an appropriate setting for a civic building. in the dense urban fabric of Ahmedabad, this garden and recreational space provides a welcome oasis.
entry to the institute is from an internal road. the building takes the form of a quadrant in plan. two perpendicular arms pivot around a cylindrical tower housing a staircase. the arc inscribed between the two perpendicular arms faces the main road. An internal courtyard is created between the three wings, serving and connecting them and providing a central focus for informal interaction and various activities. Dramatic shallow curved arches on the courtyard elevations and the cylindrical staircase block pay homage to the Kahn building opposite.
the two perpendicular buildings house classrooms. the curved wing has the library and computer labs.
On the ground floor, a large space overlooking the grounds can be used for college and other events.
external elevations are distinguished by bold cut-out apertures, symmetricality, and alternating striped bands of stone and pale grey exposed concrete emphasising the horizontality of the building and reinforcing its grounding. Vertical fins on the teaching block elevations reduce sunlight and glare. Signature circular windows, in conjunction with large square openings, present a defining image of the institute to the main road.
Designing a large building opposite the IIM-A by Louis Kahn comes with its own challenges. It was important not to impinge on the force of this imposing architectural neighbour, yet also not be daunted by its presence.
While I was studying architecture, in 1973 IIM-A was being completed, and several professors worked on it with Kahn. We students were set several projects to study Kahn’s architecture. One involved the double spiral staircase of the IIM-A library building – for me similar to a staircase designed by Andrea Palladio in the monastery of the Carita, Venice. We had to make a model of the library, showing brick courses with Flemish bond and other technical features. The image and lessons of that stair lingered; and years later when the opportunity came to design a building facing Kahn’s great campus, we paid homage with a reinterpreted idea of the stair in today’s language. The double stair has concave and convex curved soffits; difficult to construct on site.
Other elements derive from the Kahn masterpiece: the curved arch on the south-west ground floor; the accentuated tangent of the cylinder; long corridors open at both ends.
Classrooms – the main requirement of the college – are placed along the north and east sides, making an L-shaped plan, with the juncture housing a staircase.
A limited budget constrained use of stone and required larger areas of exposed concrete. The banding of these materials adds to the aesthetic impact: grey concrete and grey polished Kota stone.
The client required a phased construction program. The single-storey building eventually acquired a second storey involving minimal upheaval; and the building would seem complete in both single- and two-storey phases.
0 5 10m